Shearing head for dry shaver

ABSTRACT

The shearing head includes a short hair shearing unit and a long hair shearing unit driven by a common reciprocating driving member. The long hair shearing unit is supported on a tiltable supporting member which can be angularly displaced and locked in a lifted position exceeding the top of the short hair shearing unit.

United States Patent Fischer 1 July 4, 1972 [54] SHEARING HEAD FOR DRY SHAVER [56] References Cited [72] Inventor: Richard Fischer, Frankfurt am Main, Ger- UNITED STATES PATENTS man y 2,917,824 l2/l959 Braiiss ..30/34.l [73] Assignee: Bram! Aktiengesellschaft, Frankfurt/Main,

Germany FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS [22] Filed: July 13, 1970 353,652 5/1961 Switzerland ..30/43.92

[211 App! 54521 Primary ExaminerAndrew R. Juhasz Assistant Examiner-Gary L. Smith AtrorneyErnest F. Marmorek [30] Foreign Application Priority Data July 11, 1969 Luxembourg ..s90s2 [571 ABSTRACT The shearing head includes a short hair shearing unit and a US. ..30/34-l, long hair shearing unit driven a common. reciprocating 1 It. Cl. r mcmben The long hair hearing uni is supported on a of l I l upporting member can be angularly displaced 30/132. 133, 1 67 and locked in a lifted position exceeding the top of the short a hair shearing unit.

7 Claims, 4 Drawing Figures P'A'TENTEuJuL "4 m2 3, 673 ,683

Inventor.- Balm-rd Fischer;

SHEARING HEAD FOR DRY SHAVER BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates generally to dry shavers. More particularly, this invention relates to a shearing head for dry shavers having a short hair shearing member and a long hair shearing member which is adjustable for several working positions.

In conventional shearing head structures of this type it has been already known how to adjust the position and thus to improve the operation of the long hair shearing unit during the cutting or trimming of sharp hair contours such as, for instance, in the case of trimming beards or the hair contours on the temples. The fixedly mounted long hair shearing unit associated with the short hair shearing unit has the disadvantage that in shaving in front of a shaving mirror, the housing of the dry shaver or the short hair shearing unit obstructs the view of the site of trimming on the skin of the face.

To remove this disadvantage, there have been hitherto suggested two design solutions:

In one solution, the long hair shearing member is arranged for a linear displacement along one side of the housing of the dry shaving apparatus. It can be displaced in the direction of the longitudinal axis of the housing or at a small angle thereto from a low position at which the shearing tracks are embedded in the shearing head housing or lie thereupon, to an elevated position at which the shearing tracks are levelled with or exceed the top of the short hair shearing unit. The shortcoming of this known solution resides in the fact that there are necessary long guiding members integral with the housing and, besides, the entire structure of the long hair shearing unit must be made of correspondingly extended and reinforced construction elements, preferably larnellar, in order to insure a safe and solid support. As a consequence, the housing of the dry shaver has a plump configuration and increased weight. The range of extension of the adjustable long hair shearing unit still remains unsatisfactory and the drawback of fixed long hair shearing units is not completely removed.

In another known embodiment, the long hair shearing unit is laterally extendable at an oblique angle to the longitudinal axis of the head housing. Nevertheless, even in this modification the aforementioned shortcomings are still present. Since the interior of the shaving apparatus limits the range of the oblique guide ways for the extendable shearing unit, the maximum extension away from the housing is still insufficient for providing an unobstructed view of the site of shearing operation of the long hair shearing unit.

Furthermore, there is also known a long hair shearing member which in its rest position is embedded within the shearing head housing and can be tilted upwards into a working position. In this working position, however, it cannot be further elevated and does not remove the disadvantage of the poor visibility due to the short hair shearing unit.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is accordingly an object of this invention to provide a shearing head structure which will avoid the abovementioned drawbacks of the prior art.

In particular, it is an object of this invention to provide a long hair shearing unit arranged adjacent to a short hair shearing unit which can be extended from a low position at the bottom edge of the short hair unit to an elevated position at the top level of the latter.

It is also an object of this invention to provide a simplified mechanical structure of the long hair shearing unit which avoids the clumsy prior art construction elements and which can be disposed within the limited space of the shearing head housing without any modifications or enlargements of the latter.

Still another object of this invention is to improve the operation of the long hair shearing unit.

According to this invention, the above objects are attained by providing a shearing head having a housing, a short hair shearing unit operatively supported by the housing, a long hair shearing unit disposed adjacent said short hair shearing unit and movably connected with relation to said housing for movement between two extreme positions including an elevated position near the top level of the short hair shearing unit, and, respectively, a normal position at a level lower than said elevated position.

The long hair shearing unit is preferably supported on a tiltable support member which can be pivotally suspended on the inner surface of the housing. In another modification, the inner surface of the housing is provided with guiding grooves and the support member is guided in these grooves by means of suitable projections.

It is also advantageous that the distance from the cutting blades of the long hair shearing unit to the axis of pivoting be at least as large as the distance between the cutting blades and the plane of symmetry of the short hair shearing unit. As a result, the runway of the cross-bar support member is adjusted to the non-circular curvature of the shearing head. It is also advantageous to define respective positions of the support member by means of arresting means.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWING For a better understanding of this invention, together with other and further objects thereof, reference is had to the following description taken in connection with the accompanying drawing, in which:

FIG. 1 is a partly cut-away side view, partly in section, of the shearing head of the dry shaving apparatus of this invention;

FIG. 2 is a side view, partly in section, of the long hair shearing unit in its low position wherein the parts of the short hair shearing unit have been omitted;

FIG. 3 is a view similar to FIG. 2, of the long hair shearing unit in its elevated position; and

FIG. 4 is an exploded perspective view of the long hair shearing unit of this invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION With reference to FIG. 1, there is shown a shearing head seated on an inside portion 4 of a housing 3 of a dry shaver. The housing of the shearing head comprises sidewalls 1 and front walls 2 and 2; the head can be disconnected from the dry shaver housing 3. Within the housing 3, a reciprocating driving member (not shown) is situated; a reciprocating lever 5 from the driving member projects into the shearing head housing and is coupled by a finger 6 to the movable inside blade 8 of the short hair shearing unit. The blade 8 is kept by a spring 7 in resilient contact with an outside net-shaped blade 9 that is rigidly connected by screws 10 to the front wall 2, and extends between the side walls 1 of the shearing head housing. At the opposite front wall 2, adjacent to one bottom edge of the stationary net-shaped balde 9, there is situated the long hair shearing member which consists essentially of a stationary comb-shaped blade 11 and of an oscillatory comb-shaped blade 12 situated against the lower surface of the stationary blade 11. The reciprocating comb blade 12 is provided with a projecting fork-shaped member 13 which is in engagement with a horizontally projecting finger 14 of the reciprocating arm 5 of the driving unit.

In FIGS. 2 and 3, two limit positions of the long hair shearing unit are shown in greater detail, wherein the parts of the short hair shearing unit are omitted for reasons of simplification. The horizontal carrying finger 14 is indicated in FIGS. 2 and 3 in dash-and-dot lines.

Referring now to FIGS. 2 to 4, the long hair shearing unit includes a rectangular U-shaped supporting member 33 which comprises a cross-bar 24 upon which the shearing elements of the long hair shearing head are mounted. The cross-bar 24 is terminated by perpendicularly projecting arms 15 which are tiltably supported in pivots 16 at the sidewalls 1. To arrest the tiltable supporting member 33 in the desired positions, the

arms 15 are provided with leaf springs 17 terminated by projections 20. In the lower position, the projection 20 is in engagement with bores 19 in the sidewalls 1, whereas in the elevated position the projection 20 engagesthe bores 18. The comb-shaped upper blade 11 is secured to the cross-bar 24 of the supporting member 33 by means of rivets 23 that pass through borings 22. The movable lower comb-shaped blade 12 is disposed adjacent to the lower surface of the stationary upper blade 1 l and is held in resilient contact therewith by an elongated sliding plate 25 having downwardly projecting little pins 29. These pins 29 pass through helical springs which are embedded in recesses 27 in. the cross-bar 24.

In addition, the upper surface of the cross-bar 24 is provided with guiding pins 30 which project through corresponding round holes 31 in the sliding piece 25 and through oblong holes 32 in the movable lower blade 12. A corrugated grip 26 serves for the position adjustment of the entire long hair shearing unit. The grip 26 is secured at the central portion of the cross-bar 24 which at that area is also provided with a downwardly protruding locking boss 21. The cross-bar 24, as well as the arms 15, are in a tight slidable contact with the inside surfaces of the head housing to prevent shavings from entering the inside space of the shearing head.

The long hair shearing head is operable both in its low position'and in itselevated swung-up position. In the latter position the shearing'blades exceed the level of the top of the short hair shearing head, so that a good visibility for the long hair trimming action is secured. By contrast to prior art designs which are technologically complicated and susceptible to failure, the pivotal suspensionof the supporting member 33 considerably simplifies the entire structure of the shearing head. Since the arms of the supporting member occupy minimum space, there is no need for varying the shape of the shearing head housing, and the configuration of the shearing blades can also be employed without any modifications.

The fork-shaped member 13 is integral with the middle portion of the rear edge-of the lower comb-shaped shearing blade 12 and passes through a corresponding aperture (not shown) in the vertical portion of the stationary upper comb-shaped shearing blade ll.

As illustrated in the drawing, both the normal position and the elevated position of the long hair shearing unit are operative positions. It is possible, however, by employing a conventional suitable switching coupling, to design the long hair shearing unit in such a manner as to arbitrarily switch off the latter in the rest position.

I wish it to beunderstood that I do not desire to be limited to the exact details of construction shown and described, for obvious modifications will occur to a person skilled in the art.

Having thus described the invention, what I claim as new and desire to be secured by Letters Patent, is as follows:

1. A shearing head for a dry shaving apparatus having an oscillatory driving member, comprising in combination, a shearing head housing, a short hair shearing unit operatively supported by said housing, a long hair shearing unit disposed adjacent said short hair shearing unit and pivotally connected with relation to said housing for angular adjustment between two extreme positions including an elevated position near the top level of said short hair shearing unit and, respectively, a normal position at a level lower than said elevated position, means coupling said long hair shearing unit to said driving member for driving said unit in either one of said extreme positions and intermediate thereof.

2. A shearing head for a dry shaving apparatus, comprising in combination, a shearing head housing, a short hair shearing unit operatively supported by said housing, a long hair shearing unit disposed adjacent said short hair shearingunit and movably connected with relation to said housing for movement between two extreme positions including an elevated position near the top level of said short hair shearing unit and, respectively, a normal position at a level lower than said elevated position, a tiltable support member having a longitudinal cross-bar situated ad'acent a bottom portion of said short hair shearing unit, sai long hair shearing unit being supported on said support member, perpendicular arms endwise mounted on said cross-barand extending along the inner surface of said housing and being pivotally suspended with relation therefrom.

3. A shearing head according to claim 2, reciprocating driving member, said long hair shearing unit comprising a stationary upper shearing member. secured to said cross-bar, and a reciprocating lower shearing member slidably supported near the top surface of said cross-bar, and a fork-shaped coupling in driven relation from said driving member.

4. A shearing head according to claim 2 wherein said arms are provided with resilient arresting means for locking said tiltable support member, and thereby saidlong hair shearing unit, in any desired operative position between said extreme positions.

5. A shearing head according to claim 3 wherein the distance between said shearing elements and the axis of tilting of said supporting member exceeds the distance between said shearing members and the longitudinal plane of symmetry of said short hair shearing unit.

6. A shearing head according to claim 4, said housing having sidewalls and defining bores, said resilient arresting means including elongated leaf springs secured at one end thereof to said arms and provided at the other end with locking pins, said locking pins engaging said bores.

7. A shearing head for a dry shaving apparatus, comprising in combination, a shearing head housing, a short hair shearing unit operatively supported by said housing, a long hair shearing unit disposed adjacent said short hair shearing unit and movably connected with relation to said housing for movement between two extreme positions including an elevated position near the top level of said short hair shearing unit and, respectively, a normal position at a level lower than said elevated position, a displaceable support member comprising a longitudinal cross-bar adjacent a bottom portion of said short hair shearing unit, said long hair shearing unit being supported on said support member, perpendicular arms endwise mounted on said cross-bar and extending near the inner surface of said housing, guiding grooves defined in said inner surface, and groove engaging means arranged on said arms operable for engaging said guiding grooves thereby to guide said long hair shearing unit in its movements.

' I I I I 

1. A shearing head for a dry shaving apparatus having an oscillatory driving member, comprising in combination, a shearing head housing, a short hair shearing unit operatively supported by said housing, a long hair shearing unit disposed adjacent said short hair shearing unit and pivotAlly connected with relation to said housing for angular adjustment between two extreme positions including an elevated position near the top level of said short hair shearing unit and, respectively, a normal position at a level lower than said elevated position, means coupling said long hair shearing unit to said driving member for driving said unit in either one of said extreme positions and intermediate thereof.
 2. A shearing head for a dry shaving apparatus, comprising in combination, a shearing head housing, a short hair shearing unit operatively supported by said housing, a long hair shearing unit disposed adjacent said short hair shearing unit and movably connected with relation to said housing for movement between two extreme positions including an elevated position near the top level of said short hair shearing unit and, respectively, a normal position at a level lower than said elevated position, a tiltable support member having a longitudinal cross-bar situated adjacent a bottom portion of said short hair shearing unit, said long hair shearing unit being supported on said support member, perpendicular arms endwise mounted on said cross-bar and extending along the inner surface of said housing and being pivotally suspended with relation therefrom.
 3. A shearing head according to claim 2, reciprocating driving member, said long hair shearing unit comprising a stationary upper shearing member secured to said cross-bar, and a reciprocating lower shearing member slidably supported near the top surface of said cross-bar, and a fork-shaped coupling in driven relation from said driving member.
 4. A shearing head according to claim 2 wherein said arms are provided with resilient arresting means for locking said tiltable support member, and thereby said long hair shearing unit, in any desired operative position between said extreme positions.
 5. A shearing head according to claim 3 wherein the distance between said shearing elements and the axis of tilting of said supporting member exceeds the distance between said shearing members and the longitudinal plane of symmetry of said short hair shearing unit.
 6. A shearing head according to claim 4, said housing having sidewalls and defining bores, said resilient arresting means including elongated leaf springs secured at one end thereof to said arms and provided at the other end with locking pins, said locking pins engaging said bores.
 7. A shearing head for a dry shaving apparatus, comprising in combination, a shearing head housing, a short hair shearing unit operatively supported by said housing, a long hair shearing unit disposed adjacent said short hair shearing unit and movably connected with relation to said housing for movement between two extreme positions including an elevated position near the top level of said short hair shearing unit and, respectively, a normal position at a level lower than said elevated position, a displaceable support member comprising a longitudinal cross-bar adjacent a bottom portion of said short hair shearing unit, said long hair shearing unit being supported on said support member, perpendicular arms endwise mounted on said cross-bar and extending near the inner surface of said housing, guiding grooves defined in said inner surface, and groove engaging means arranged on said arms operable for engaging said guiding grooves thereby to guide said long hair shearing unit in its movements. 